What They DON’T Tell you About Working in IT

They have this thing called a “cut-over weekend“. This is when the customer (and/or your employer) reminds you that your sexual organs remain firmly secured within the vice grips of your manager. The actual definition comes from the Latin phrase “terminus socialus life-us”, which translates into English as “we are taking control over your weekend and too bad for your personal life“

They have another thing called “after hours work“, which is as you might have guessed: after normal working hours.

News flash: Once you are assigned as a salaried worker, for most of us mere mortals anyway, means “normal working hours” are midnight to midnight, but thankfully, only on days that end with a “y”.

Other things I should’ve included, and maybe I’ll consume enough wine to publish a new version of the latter book mentioned previously, are the following:

Priority Projects <> Priority Management directives. That’s right. Sometimes you have more than one boss. And sometimes, those bosses don’t agree. But that doesn’t mean you have a clear kung fu stick for which to fight back either.

Deferred work <> Delayed Deadlines. This is the worst, evil-brained, multi-headed beast known to mankind/womankind. Think of it as winning the lottery later in life, but you still die on the same date. Kind of the same, only less fun.

Imagine if you and I could drink some beers together, and I impart this depressing wisdom upon you. How long before you reached for the nearest sharp object and ended it. I doubt I’d have time to pull out a stopwatch and try to measure the time it would take.

Me: “Okay, I’m going to see how long it takes for you to…” (gagging and coughing sounds, loud thump as body hits the floor).